What happened to Costa Mesa?

TONY DODERO

Last Friday, while on vacation, I took my son Nathan to my favorite

barber shop to get his first ever haircut.

Nate, as we call him, doesn’t have much hair yet, as he’s only 19

months old. What hair he did have was kind of scraggly, and even

worse, the tufts on the back of his neck came down in one of those

mullet-style looks.

And my wife and I were not going to have any of that.

So off we went to Miller Barber Family Barber Shop, owned and

operated by Mark Miller, a Costa Mesa native, born and raised.

I’ve been going to Mark Miller’s shop on Broadway, just a stone’s

throw from Triangle Square, for about two years now, before Nate was

even born, and Mark is as good as they get at cutting hair.

After he cleaned up Nate, gave him a cool first haircut

certificate and made him look respectable, it was my turn in the

chair.

What I got, though, was more than just a haircut. I got a lesson

on the disappointment that at least one Costa Mesa resident feels

about his town and the direction it’s heading and, more importantly,

what he thinks the problems and solutions are.

First, a little background.

As I said, Mark was born and raised here. He attended Pomona

Elementary, Rea Middle School and Estancia High. His dad, Bob Miller,

was a principal at several local schools, mainly Adams and Newport

elementary.

His baseball coaches were the legendary Luke Davis and Shorty

Scheafer, whose son Mike was on the City Council not that long ago.

Mark and his wife Diane are now raising their kids, Dylan, 12, and

Josie, 7, here in his hometown.

And he has one big question.

“What happened to Costa Mesa?”

In his mind, it’s pretty clear. City leaders abandoned the youth.

They nudged out the small mom and pops in favor of big corporations,

and they seem way too focused on putting in restaurants and bars and

less concerned about keeping the city’s small town charm alive.

“Back when I was a kid, the Fish Fry was always something to look

forward to,” he said. “We had parades and the Boys Club passed out

food to all the people. There is none of that anymore. And it’s

appalling.”

Specifically, he wants to see the Westside of Costa Mesa return to

what it was like some 20 or 30 years ago.

“They need to bring back the old Boys and Girls Club that we used

to have,” he said, noting that he began attending the Boys and Girls

Club in 1965. “We had a swimming pool and shop classes. It was great.

We used to have our own youth baseball league.”

The league once called Costa Mesa Park its home, but the land is

now called Luke Davis Field. He’s got no quarrel with the name. “Luke

was my baseball coach,” he said. But he’s positive that both Luke

Davis and Shorty Scheafer would be unhappy with what Costa Mesa has

done with youth baseball.

“There is not even snack bars for kids to go,” he said. “I want my

Westside to have its baseball back.”

And not just baseball, he said.

“The city needs more things for the youth,” he said. “I just love

Costa Mesa. I just want to make it better for these kids, so they can

have dreams and goals.”

He acknowledges that there is a Boys and Girls Club at what is now

Rea Elementary, but it’s not sufficient, he said.

“They can’t play basketball,” he said of that facility. “No

sports. Kids need to exercise. They don’t even do it at school,

nothing ... Right now, Costa Mesa is not healthy. We need more

healthy minds and healthy bodies.”

As for the Westside, where he grew up, he has some suggestions.

First and foremost is to relocate the DMV and put it near John

Wayne Airport.

“Turn that into a youth employment service and Boys and Girls

Club,” he said. “You can have shop classes and drafting. Let’s face

it, not everybody is going to USC and UCLA.”

Costa Mesa Councilwoman Linda Dixon said she agrees 100% that the

youth are not being served.

“That’s a very valid point,” she said. “We don’t have a youth

center, where kids can congregate. We don’t have dances for kids on

Friday nights or extracurricular activities, especially for middle

school kids.”

As for moving the DMV, she said that’s a pretty hefty chore,

considering the land is owned by the state of California.

“Once again, you’re talking about funding,” said Dixon, who along

with her fellow council members just voted to give $1 million to

Costa Mesa United toward the creation of a stadium and Olympic pool

for Costa Mesa’s high schools. “Would this community step up to the

plate to pay for something like that? I don’t know. But there are all

sorts of possibilities if people want to get creative.”

She said if the DMV didn’t work, maybe the city could find another

locale, even a vacant strip mall to build a center.

Either way, Mark just wants to see things get better and back to

the way they were.

“There’s plenty of space if people would stop thinking we need

more bars and restaurants,” he said. “It just upsets me. I’d love to

take my kid to the Fish Fry. I’d love to have a parade.”

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He may be reached at (714) 966-4608

or by e-mail at tony.dodero @latimes.com.